Round the world ....... and back!

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Wed 26 Oct 2011 15:02
Wednesday 26 October 1418 UTC 1518 BST   
 
Wind: Irrelevant...... COG...... northwards in the next few days SOG Zero at the moment...   
 
On a windless or very light following winds yesterday for the first time in about six weeks Rhiann Marie shook off an adverse current and the inflow combined with tide led us as if on air skates coasting into the Gibraltar Straits. The traffic was quite heavy and there were a lot of fishing boats around. Trish who is an excellent watch keeper releived me at the back of midnight and took control until we entered the straights at 0200, when she called me up to set our course to the south of the shipping lanes heading east. She had been carried along at speeds up to 14 knots!
 
I then grabbed a couple more hours then but was woken with a start by a heavy clunk from the prop. I guess we picked up a rope and our spur cutter made fast work of it. Trish had been barreling along with the powerful inflo to the Med carrying us on its liquid conveyor.
 
The Mediterranean has a constant net water inflow at the straits. The Mediterranean known to the ancient Romans as Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) is bound in the West by the fabled pillars of Hercules. The Gibraltar Rock in Europe to the North and Jebel Mussa in Morocco in Africa to the South.
 
In the darkness last night I remembered that the west facing side of this mount had huge white Arabic letters declaring to us an unknown message. Angus however when we initially approached two years ago translated for us. He said it read "you are now entering Africa - please donate generously!" I found this hilarious but of course is completely politically uncorrect and all the PC brigade would interpret the humorous comment as being racist or some such thing. It's for that reason that I am not going to mention it........ and without anyone knowing what I was laughing at I had a wee giggle to myself last night remebering the moment...
 
So along with 1 million cubic metres of water per second we charged into the Mediterranean in the black of night last night. That is a shoching amount of gas escaping into the atmospere and I am quite surprised that a body such as SEPA is not doing something about it. Probably a good start would be considered to have a conference in Monaco or somewhere to discuss the "problem".....
 
We however were only going as far as La Linea at Puerto Deportivo Alcaidesa. The water that came in along with us is mostly destined for the skies again as it will replace two thirds of the evaporation that continually takes place from the Mediterranean. The balance of evaporation is made up from other water sources such as rivers of which there are few significant ones, flowing into the Med.
 
Because of the Straits' constriction to the inflow to the thirsty "middle sea" the water level is actually 1 metre higher at the west side of the Med compared to the East side! Depths across the Strait form a 300m deep cill between the Med and the Atlantic where depths in the Easten Med are down to 5000metres!          
 
So ....................... after relieving Trish of her watch duties I crossed the shipping lanes which were not too busy and after a few hours anchored up without waking her, inside the breakwater of the new marina on the "Spanish side" and slept soundly till 1000 when we moved into the marina. There we celebrated our journey's end by starting to scrub, the boat, get the electricity connected tweak the lines and fenders for a prolonged stay, did the paperwork and formalities at the marina. Bedding has to be aired and packed washing to be done blogs and business e-mails to be written and flights home by the weekend, to be organised.
 
I will offer some reflections and tell you a bit about future plans over the coming weeks. First we have to "come down" and let the reality and wonderous magnitude of our adventure over the past two years sink in.
 
Talk soon.....